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Friday, 22 June 2012

All Gove Fans Must Have Prizes

After the leak from Michael “Oiky” Gove to the Daily Mail
have come, in the manner of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), the pundits to pass comment
and reinforce the view of their legendarily foul mouthed editor that a more
rigorous approach to education is A Very Good Idea Indeed, though all have
stopped short of backing a return to ritual beatings and cold showers.

Still not the voice of calm moderation

And pride of place at the Mail has to go to the one who brought us the magnificently fraudulent
catchphrase “All must have prizes”:
step forward Melanie “not just Barking
but halfway to Upminster” Phillips. Mel’s
characterisation is total crap, and for one very good reason: all that
those who pass a GCSE get is a pass, just as it was for those who passed CSEs
or “O” levels. Passes are not prizes.

And her assertions are hilarious in their sheer idiocy: “many of those with university degrees today
are inarticulate and innumerate ... creativity was fetishised over knowledge ...
state-imposed rubbish – including heavy doses of politically correct propaganda
about gender, race and man-made global warming” and no, I am not making any
of that up. Those are Mel’s exact words.

Then she wants to go back to the 1950s, which is an
interesting proposition, given that many were concerned at the time that the
introduction of “O” levels and “A” levels in 1951 could be a little radical.
Prior to this date, pupils deemed sufficiently able took the School Certificate
at age 16, and the Higher School Certificate at 18. And obtaining the School
Certificate was not just a matter of passing exams.

One did not obtain the School Certificate until and unless
one had matriculated, that is, had
passed the exams in maths, English and other subjects. A pass therefore showed
that the pupil had ability across the whole of the curriculum. Yet this
approach failed those with aptitude in, say, sciences or languages. And when “O”
levels came in, these too failed most pupils.

Because what Mad Mel and the rest of the froth brigade fail
to grasp is that only 25% of all pupils in England and Wales took them, and
many of them failed one or more subjects. And the other 75% got nothing – well,
not until the CSE arrived in 1965, and the two together did what the GCSE does
now. But the CSE was regarded as next to worthless, so the 75% still effectively
ended up with nothing.

Melanie Phillips would like to return to that state of
affairs. That’s not good enough.